I remember working in the dresses department at Lord and Taylor. All the dresses had a similar style and all the designers seemed to have used the same palette of colors for all the dresses that season.

Color and design are not the only two things that can be compared between designers.  Designers may also have matching store window display’s, look-alike  newsletters, identical photography for their website and the same store set-up.

I guess, that’s what happens when to be different is celebrated, everyone ends up the same.

This is a collage of two newsletters.  At the right is Michael Kors and at the left  is Cole Haan. Even though the bag styles are different and even the layout of the newsletter are different, there seem to be similarities.

The bags are big and both newsletters are targeted to ‘Mom’ with the same color backdrop, white. There is also one bag in both pictures that is red.

However, if I had to pick a letter over another, I would pick the Cole Haan letter.The art in the background catches the eye. And the fact that he isn’t advertising more Cole Haan items in the letter, makes me as the buyer think:  maybe I really should shop for a bag from Cole Haan. Because the only thing pictured in Cole Haan’s newsletter is his bags, this seems to show his confidence in his bag design. He seem to be saying: I don’t need to market anything else in this letter.

Marketing something else in the letter takes away from the main item. Of course anybody can buy their mom anything for Mother’s Day, but if you are suggesting a bag as a gift to your customers then you should market the bag extremely well.

I guess it doesn’t matter if businesses do have similar taste, one would always out do another.